Navi

Through an intuitive mobile app, we provide real-time data to track screen usage as well as personalized guidance to help parents monitor, moderate and navigate the world of toddlers and technology.

INSIGHTS

Technology is on the rise, impacting our everyday lives both with positive and negative outcomes. Based on our secondary research, we learnt that 38% of children under 2 have used a mobile device in comparison to 10% two years ago. The percentage of children who use mobile devices on a daily basis - at least once a day or more - has more than doubled, from 8% to 17% in the same period. And the amount of time toddlers spent using these devices in a typical day has tripled, from last year. Also, 50% of parents with toddlers own a tablet or computer as compared to 27% non-parents and this has led to 28% less family time.

Over exposure of screens has deep impacts on children’s health and is one of the key factors leading to long-term problems like obesity, sleep disorders and dysgraphia among children.

Although these risks directly affect children, parents are the primary caregivers who have to deal with these situations. And they are the device owners and decision makers in their child’s early stages of life, making them our primary target audience.

Providing tailored recommendations: Based on the information collected by Navi, and in comparison to trusted standards from the APP, it points out specific areas for improvement, by giving tailored recommendations for parents.

For parents:Navi provides parents with accurate data of their child’s screen usage, and ways to change and improve their development giving the parents the chance to change their child’s and family habits before they become a problem.

For society:By promoting a more balanced relationship between toddler’s and screens, Navi will not only generate better outcomes for families but will also have a positive impact in medium to long-term health implications. Better screen time can have an impact of over 10 billion dollars only in the US healthcare system by changing screen use habits in toddlers in the next few years.

Team members: Akriti Vora, Jorge Torres, Maria Macedo, Sara Shemirani

Navi

Giffy News

The theme for the semester was to 'Redesign news'

Our team decided to focus on 'Breaking News' and chose millennials, aged 18 - 25 as our primary target audience. In a quest to identify a use of media that strongly resonates with our target audience, we began with creating a customer use scenario, competitor research and coming up with our hypothesis which led to our survey and interview questions.

HYPOTHESIS / USER PERCEPTIONS

- Millennials don't care about following the news- Millennials are more interested in their immediate social environmen- Prefer facebook, Instagram over CNN, WSJ- Prefer facebook, Instagram over CNN, WS

From our research & survey responses, we were able to uncover important insights which shaped our experience design and provided us with the following insights:-

- Mobile phone is the go to for any information. Support System - Connect to the world.- News is very boring!- News is not relevant to me or my lif

These insights gave us the fodder to do more detailed interviews with the target audience and brainstorm on possible concepts. Amongst the concepts presented, the team resonated the most with 'Giffy News'

GIFFY NEWS

Giffy News is a news delivery mobile platform targeting Millennials through personalized, snackable visual images via gifs. Giffy News will deliver 'news in a jiffy!' A simple, user-friendly, personalizable .gif-driven platform that allows the users to consume news through gifs that will cater to Millennials that have short attention spans and favor meme-like products. With the popularity of Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, and Vine, .gifs have skyrocketed to become one of the most popular short video formats among young Millennials. A simple 2-5 second .gif will capture the users attention and allow them to quickly scroll through images to discover breaking, trending, international, local, and proximity-based news.

To conclude, the experience design studio was an illuminating one through the process of designing Giffy News. I gained much insight from our surveys on what demands are not being met by the current breaking news offerings. In understanding our competitors better, it informed us more of what the landscape looks like, what is driving current trends in news digests and where innovation can exist and how our app 'Giffy news' can supply some of that.

With novice experience in designing a mobile app, building and prototyping 'Giffy News' was, by far, the most rewarding. Our team had the good fortune of being able to test the app on potential users and see first hand what kind of impact it could have in the future and how to do it better.

Team members: Akriti Vora, Jamila Smith, James Chowdry, Tony Jimenez

Lean Labs

Lean Labs is a company that believes that it is time to marry proven science in health with the latest technology to improve the health and lives of billions of people. We call our approach "Quantified Health" because we can actually quantify what is happening in the human body in response to our program.

Our team dove into extensive customer development and research to identify the pain points and needs that customers, both current and potential, have in connection with health, fitness and weight loss. We believe that everyone has the ability to live a healthier, happier life, and it was our mission to find out what motivates people to do so. Through our findings, the team created a strategic initiative to aid Lean Labs gain competitive advantage in the health & technology industry.

Reconnect SF

Exploring the emergence of “overconnected” mobile device users in cities, the issues caused by their overconnectedness, and a proposed solution in the form of a citywide movement called ‘Reconnect SF’.

Our team explored the emerging concept of “overconnectedness” in cities, a state in which urbanites are becoming increasingly addicted to their mobile devices, and the consequences of this dependency.

Citizens affected by overconnectedness found that their increasing amount of device usage affected their public safety, their personal relationships, their health, and their experiences. There is a need to create more awareness of this phenomenon, and also city-endorsed options that allow citizens to conveniently disconnect selectively.

The team created a city-wide movement called ‘Reconnect SF’ as a solution to this growing issue. ‘Reconnect SF’ fully encompasses the main sectors in citizens’ lives that are affected by overconnectedness: Family, Community, Privacy, Health & Safety and Experience.

We tested an initial prototype where we asked everyone to check in their phones (during a 3 hour class) in an effort to create a "tech-free zone." A survey was sent out afterward & moments during the check-in process were observed and captured.

Insights from initial prototyping:

- A sense of security is important- Incentives are needed- People are worried about forgetting their device- People are reluctant to pay for this service- People worry about missing something important

Goodwill Industries

What experiences do customers want when shopping at mission-driven thrift stores? In this team project, we talked to customers of both Goodwill and competitor stores to understand what drives customers to shop, donate, and become a part of the Goodwill community. We also created a detailed marketing implementation plan to help Goodwill create more engaging shopping experiences.

Plan India

Associated with Plan India, an NGO dedicated to bring improvement in the lives of underprivileged children in India. They help various fund-raisers & conferences for which i designed the collaterals and also volunteered my time during the event.